A Remarkable story of brain injury

Raphael Diluzio’s personal story is compelling on his own. He describes himself as a creative artist, entrepreneur and professor. His life took a wrong turn when, as he puts it, an 18-wheel truck carrying a full payload decided to “park” in the back of his Honda Fit. The accident resulted in a massive brain injury that caused amnesia and a loss of his ability to draw and speak. Undergoing two years of speech therapy to speak again gave him the time and motivation to reflect on creativity and the nature of creative process.

Diluzio came up with what he called the 7 stages of creativity based on his research and own experience as a recovering artist.

7 Stages Of Creativity

(1)State the question or the problem to solve. The idea is to carefully establish in your mind what requires your creativity. So, clearly frame the question/problem at the onset of the process. Note that it doesn’t have to be a grand problem like cold fusion. Things like what to give my spouse for her birthday, the next stage of a project at work, or what to write for your next blog post will do just fine.

(2)Research it. Humans are curious by creature; a baby will start exploring his world by sticking anything coming nearby in his mouth. This innate tendency to research a problem is even very satisfying to some of us. The gathering of data about a specific topic through reading books, exploring the Internet, and sharing your newly-found knowledge with others is the perfect way to saturate your mind with the elements related to the problem.

(3) But “Enough is enough!”. In other words, don’t get stuck in the research phase. This is what Diluzio calls the basta stage. Some might get lost in the satisfying nature of research phase, but at some point it’s time to stop inputting information and start reflecting.

(4)Gestation—You need to detach yourself from the problem and instead give it some space. It’s the stage of detachment. Let it stew. Keep the new information in the back of your mind while holding the problem gently in your mind. Look at the problem in a different way, with a different perspective: how would I solve the problem if I were a lobster or POTUS? Visualize the problem as something else. Apply divergent thinking. The use of metaphors or “psychological distance techniques“, as reported in this blog, can be particularly helpful. Don’t be afraid to think crazy ideas and more importantly don’t filter yourself. Diluzio suggests to operate with the fearlessness of imagination of an artist. Mesh the world of empiricism and intuition/imagination.

(5) Then if everything goes well, you should have a “eureka moment” that can comes as little flashes or major light-bulb illumination. What is very important at this stage is to write down ideas that comes with those eureka moments. So don’t waste those ideas: dictate them, draw them, capture them in Evernote (my personal favorite), write them down in your paper ideas journal, etc…

(6) Once you have the idea(s), you must “bring it into being“. A lot of people are afraid of failure and don’t give the idea a chance to become something concrete. We must operate without fear. DiLuzio says that he prefers “eloquent failures to boring success”. If you can concretize the idea yourself, get people around to help or describe it in minute details so others can realize it later. It’s important to bring the ideas out and share them otherwise the world or your company doesn’t move forward. Be the driver of innovation.

(7) Finally comes the stage of testing and criticizing by sharing those new ideas with the world. Invite criticism and feed it back into the creative process to refine the idea or branch out into better ideas.

The good news according to Jablokow is that EVERYBODY is creative and she goes on to dispel 2 myths:

Two Myths about creativity

Myth #1: Only some people are creative (this is at the core of this whole blog!).

We need to dispel the myth that “only some people are creative” where people are classified as creative and non-creative typically based on one’s main occupation.

Artists, musicians, writers? Creative!

Engineers, accountants, plumbers, science teachers? Non creative!

If we define creativity as ” bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before”, then why would the domain in which the idea came into being matter?

Anyone can show creativity in art but also engineering, plumbing or gardening.

Myth #2: Only certain kinds of ideas are creative.

We often think of “creative ideas” as breakthrough ideas, revolutionary inspirations, out-of-the box strikes of genius.

But there’s another kind of creativity; one that is more evolutionary (vs. revolutionary). The kind that comes out of refining/combining previous ideas or digging deeper into a problem. Out of it comes from new insights.

One is not better than the other and in fact we need both because they are interrelated. Both evolutionary and revolutionary ideas feed each other into a never-ending vortex of creativity.
In the second part of the class, Jablokow describes the “Creative Diversity Model”, which is based on the research of important scholars like Michael Kirton, Robert Sternberg, and Teresa Amabile. The model’s view on creativity is more inclusive and more precise.

Four Creative Diversity Principles

Everyone, of every age and profession, from birth until death – everyone is creative. The source of creativity is in every individual, whether they are working alone or in a small group or in a large organization. They may have a few ideas or a lot of them; those ideas may be revolutionary or evolutionary, simple or complex. The only people who are not creative are, well … dead.

Creative Diversity Principle #2: Creativity is diverse.
In other words, we recognize that while all people are creative, they are NOT creative in the same way. There are many different versions or “flavors” of creativity. There isn’t just one kind of idea or one approach to solving problems, but many – a wide range of possibilities across the human race. So, how do we describe this creative diversity?

Creative Diversity Principle #3: Creative diversity is described by four key variables:
Given our assumption that creativity is different across individuals, we need a way to describe those differences. Michael Kirton, a British psychologist, has come up with an elegant way to do this. We’re going to use four variables:

Creative level – Creative level is related to your mental capacity . In other words, it’s related to the size and the shape of the “mental bucket” you have between your ears –and what you have stored in that bucket at any particular time! You are filling up your mental bucket from the moment you are born until the moment you die. We measure creative level using things like intelligence, aptitude, knowledge, skill, and experience . So, you may have a special talent for music, or you may have a strong aptitude for math. You may be skilled in drawing, while your friend has experience in computer programming. All these differences will affect your creativity: we tend to be creative in proportion to our creative level.

Creative style – Creative style is your preferred way of managing and using all the creative level you have acquired. In other words, it’s your preference for how you go about solving problems and bringing about change. Like other cognitive preferences, you are born with your creative style; it doesn’t change over time, although you can do things in ways that don’t match up with your style. Some people have a more structured creative style, while others prefer a less structured approach to change. It’s actually measured across a wide spectrum. People with a more structured creative style are more likely to offer evolutionary ideas, while people with a less structured creative style are more likely to offer revolutionary ideas. All of them are creative – but in different ways!

Motive – Motive is what channels our energy as we move through life. Our creativity is affected by what motivates us and whether that motivation is present. People are motivated by different things, like money, or helping others, or achieving recognition. Depending on what motivates you, you’ll put more or less energy into what you do, and that will affect your creative contributions.

Opportunity – Finally, opportunity is the availability of a problem to solve and how we perceive it. Sometimes we have access to an opportunity that others don’t, or we recognize a situation as an opportunity when others think it isn’t interesting. Those perceptions also affect our creativity and how we think about the environment around us.

Creative Diversity Principle #4: There is no ideal kind of creativity.
In other words, no particular creative level, or creative style, or motive, or view of opportunity is better than any other in general. The kind of creativity that’s most appropriate or most effective depends on the situation – that is, on the current problem you are trying to solve.

Sometimes you need a radical idea – but not always. Sometimes you need an evolutionary idea – but not always. Sometimes you need an idea that has elements of both revolutionary and evolutionary thinking! Sometimes you need a certain type of knowledge, skill or talent – perhaps at a high level, perhaps at a low level. Motives change depending on the situation, and you may have different opinions about the importance of an opportunity.

All of these options lead to change. All of them represent some form of creativity, and in some combination, they represent YOU.

Creative Types: adaptive / innovative

Later during the class we were invited to fill out a survey in order to determine where we fit on the adaptor/innovator continuum scale. On one side of the scale, the label adaptive given to those who have the ability to “do things better” and on the opposite side the label innovative for the ability to “do things differently”. Here’s more information excerpted from http://www.kaicentre.com/OK.htm

Meditation Makes You More Creative!

(This is the second installment of my “UnconventionalInnovation Boot Camp” series)

ARE YOU BRAINDEAD, TRAINEE?! I’m going to make innovators out of you! Drop down, sit with your legs crossed and do some MEDITATION!

Ugh?! Read on…

A recent study, has shown that certain meditation techniques can promote creative thinking. The study, conducted by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato at Leiden University, clearly demonstrates that meditation is not only for relaxation but can have long-lasting effect on human cognition including the much coveted creativity that every innovator should care about.

I could also drop names from the likes of Steve Jobs (who encouraged Apple’s employees to learn meditation to “boost their creativity“) or Oprah Winfrey (who practices Transcendental Meditation) or David Lynch (who started meditation in 1973, and says “It has given me effortless access to unlimited reserves of energy and creativity“), but I will let the study speak for itself.

Two main ingredients of creativity:

divergent and convergent thinking

As reported in this blog before, creativity is often seen as having 2 main ingredients: divergent and convergent styles of thinking. The study investigated the influences of 2 different types of meditative techniques: Open Monitoring meditation and Focused Attentionmeditation. The researchers matched and measured the 2 techniques as follows:

Creativity Ingredient

Meditative Technique

Divergent thinkingDivergent thinking allows many new ideas to be generated. It is measured using the so-called Alternate Uses Task method where participants are required to think up as many uses as possible for a particular object, such as a pen.

In Open Monitoring meditation the individual is receptive to all the thoughts and sensations experienced without focusing attention on any particular concept or object.This technique helped the participants perform better in divergent thinking, and generated more new ideas than previously

Convergent thinkingConvergent thinking, on the other hand, is a process whereby one possible solution for a particular problem is generated. This method is measured using the Remote Associates Task method, where three unrelated words are presented to the participants, words such as ‘time’, ‘hair’ and ‘stretch’. The participants are then asked to identify the common link: in this case, ‘long’.

In Focused Attention meditation the individual focuses on a particular thought or object.Unfortunately, this technique had no significant effect on convergent thinking leading to resolving a problem.

If you are not convinced by this single study, there are actually hundreds of studies all pointing in the same direction: there’s a strong link between meditation and creativity.

Tons of scientific studies on meditation

Of course, if you were to approach a Tibetan monk, and ask him whether he meditates for the sake of creativity, he will probably give you one of his typical smiles. People practicing meditation do it for a whole range of reasons since its benefits, both psychological (for stress, anxiety, cognitive function, depression, addiction, problem eating, focus, clarity, etc… ) and physiological (blood pressure, pain, stress markers, cellular health, sleep), have also been amply studied and are now being espoused by Western doctors, psychologists, etc…

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years and the techniques themselves are fairly simple to master. That’s one of the wonderful things about meditation; it’s easy yet so profound since it can literally change our brain both structurally and functionally thanks to what is called neuroplasticity. Here’s a fascinating study from the NIH describing how one can alter one’s brain using meditation.

Google embraces Mindfulness Meditation

Such overwhelming scientific evidence hasn’t gone unnoticed by corporations interested in the overall well-being of its employees. Google for example has been promoting meditation for many years because of its many benefits but principally because of what is called: Emotional Intelligence (EI), vs. IQ, EI has been shown to be a great predictor of job performance.

Some people might be reluctant to start meditation because they find it too “sect-like” or think that it requires them to switch their religious belief system. Nothing could be further from the truth in most cases! The same way one can practice yoga without believing in any of the Hindu gods, meditation and its many benefits can be experienced without any spiritual shift.

Do you want to try? Follow this mini-primer

If you wish to get a sample of what meditation feels like, here’s a mini-primer (inspired by the SIY book mentioned above)

Find a place where you can sit comfortably (a train/subway/bus is actually OK)

Take three slow, deep breaths to inject both energy and relaxation

Now, breathe naturally and bring a very gentle attention to your breath by either focusing on your nostrils, abdomen or the entire body.

Be aware of the in breath and out breath and the space in between.

Think of this exercise as resting the mind on the breath. You can visualize the breath to be a pillow or a resting place, and let the mind rest on it.

Just be.

(This is important!) If at any time, you feel distracted by a sensation, thought or sound, just acknowledge it, experience it and very gently let it go. Then, bring your attention very gently back to the breathing. It will happen over and over again. Don’t look down on yourself as a result. Just keep on bring your attention back

Feel free to continue as long as you want or better set a gentle alarm to let you know that the 5 or 10 minutes are over.

Are you convinced yet?

If you are interested to find out more, I would suggest that you read Search Inside Yourself or Google “meditation” since there are many resources out there. For example, headspace (and its related mobile app) offers a free program to teach you some of the basics in 10 days, 10 minutes a day.

Interested in pursuing meditation? Or maybe you already are a avid practitioner? Either way, I would love to hear from you. Please do share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Embrace restrictions to explore new creative paths.

We often think that when it comes to the creative process we need to take a “the sky is the limit” approach where everything and anything goes, without any restriction. In this post, I would like to object to the contrary.

If you were like me as a child, I disliked the essays that we had to write in elementary school where there was no mandated topic. Either by lack of imagination or maybe out of kindness, the teacher would ask us to write an essay on any topic we wished to talk about. I always struggled with those assignments because I would start writing on a topic, put down a few sentences, and then wished that I started on another more-interesting-after-all topic instead, to eventually move on to yet another topic, etc… In the end, I often ended up with a few half-baked drafts not worth sharing.

The problem was the lack of restrictions. When there was a topic, it felt like I could dive into it and explore it more thoroughly and offer more insightful ideas.

Don’t follow the path of least mental resistance

When faced with a problem requiring creativity, our lazy brains tends to follow the path of least mental resistance. Sure, we might find a solution, but is it really the best solution or even the right solution? More often than not, the solution falls short of being optimal because we fail to have enough restrictions or requirements for it in order to focus the outcome.

A few years back, I challenged myself to “be a vegetarian for a year”, i.e. I restricted my diet to not eat meat (I was actually ovo-lacto, pescetarian, for the purists out there). As a result of such restriction, one would think that my diet became bland and unimaginative, but the opposite actually happened: I started exploring foods that I never tried before because I was previously stuck on “I must have meat” mode. Adding restrictions created a new void and forced me to try alternatives that I would have probably never tried before. It expanded my culinary palette and made me a more adventurous and more creative foodie.

Restrictions compel some creative responses from the brain

Restrictions compel some creative responses from the brain to find a way around them. It’s often self-imposed restrictions/constraints used by artists (choice of medium), musicians (limited choices of instruments, arrangements, etc…), poets (sonnet, haiku, limerick), writers (see Georges Perec’s 300-page novel “La Disparition” written without the letter “e”) and architects (material, site) that engender masterpieces.

Now I’m not saying that restrictions are fun and easy. They require more brain-power and more patience because they force us to abandon the aforementioned path of least mental resistance. Despite the pain, some people claim that it’s the only way that they can be creative and they actually welcome or even induce those restrictions. How many of us waited for the very last night before an essay was due before starting to work on it? I’m not saying that a self-induced time restriction is the way to go but some people thrive on it.

Restrictions forces us to explore new opportunities and escape the ordinary

So, don’t see restrictions as a limitation of your choices but as a shift of choices. Don’t view restrictions as a curse but rather as a chance to explore new opportunities and go down less-traveled roads, and as a welcomed challenge to stretch your creative muscles beyond the traditional and the escape the ordinary, in order to produce something truly innovative.

[Photo Credit: photo taken along highway 89, between Page, AZ and Zion NP]

(This is the first installment of my “UnconventionalInnovation Boot Camp” series)

YOU MAGGOTS! I’m going to make innovators out of you! Grab a pad of paper, a pencil, and start writing POETRY!

Ugh?? Read on…

There’s no denying that to become an innovator one has to think outside the proverbial box, see what others have failed to see or discover the missing link between two unlikely ideas.

Sure, the execution of innovative ideas will certainly rely on a well thought-out process, maybe some engineering, a healthy dose of marketing, a sound infrastructure, a seasoned management team, etc… but before all that you need to come up with THE idea and whether you like it or not, the birth of that idea falls into the realm of creativity.

How does one develop creative aptitudes? Some will contend that you are born with them. Born with the typical skills associated with creativity: musical skills, a talent for painting or the gift of writing.

But studies have shown (including this one) that creativity can in fact be taught.

As 40-something man, trained as a Software Engineer, with zero talent for creating music or painting, I have nevertheless always considered myself creative, but I was never able to express that creativity through traditional means. Even though I would claim that being a Software Engineer and being able to create products or services out of nothingness requires for a fair amount of creativity, it is also restrictive and only appreciated by fellow nerds.

That’s until one day, a friend of mine suggested that I use poetry.

You have no creative skills? Think again. Enter poetry!

Why?

If you read these words then I will assume that you have some familiarity with the English language (not my mother tongue, BTW). That’s the good news since the same way that a painter has his palette of paint, various brushes and canvas, all you need to write poetry is a sheet of paper, a pen and the words in your vocabulary, and no prior skills required!

I’m no expert but to me, poetry is playing with words in order to express ideas. You can think of it as brainstorming on your own.

How does poetry cultivate creativity?

The way we typically think imposes (often self-imposed) thematic boundaries and logical frameworks within which ideas are allowed to develop. Poetry frees you of such limitations. You can be as silly and as illogical as you want. It’s all about playing with words and ideas and breaking out of the proverbial box.

By freely juxtaposing or clashing ideas together you invite the mind to generate even more ideas and go down innovative avenues that wouldn’t have been visible otherwise.

How do you get started?

They are many sites that will help you with getting started with writing poetry, including this simple how-to primer.

My only one piece of advice as a beginner is: don’t feel like you have to use rhymes, or specific forms or metre. Use prose and keep it simple.

After getting the aforementioned paper-and-pencil (some people prefer to use MS Word or their mobile phone or tablet), look around you or within you, reflect on some past memories and start writing what comes to mind.

Force yourself to write for 10 minutes where you are not allowed to stop even if your words on paper might look like a stream of consciousness at first. You can then extract the ideas or sentences that stand out and that you would like to explore further.

Finally, instead throwing away your art, type it up and save it somewhere. Better yet, share it as part of a blog to reread later and observe your progress. I just created a tumblr account for myself where I marry my pictures and (lame) poetry for that purpose alone.

Practice enough and who knows you might even be able to add “poet” to your business card…. Engineer, innovator and poet. How cool is that?

Muscle Confusion -> Mental Confusion

If you have been to the gym or involved in any fitness for the past few years, you certainly run into the concept of “muscle confusion“.

The idea behind the concept is that muscles accommodate to a specific type of stress/exercise when the same stress is continually applied to the muscles over time. We become very proficient at doing that same exercise but we eventually reach a plateau, where we get stuck.

The solution: mix up your exercise routines. You are a jogger? Try some strength training. Yoga is your passion? Give swimming a chance, every so often. A mix of different exercises was the novel ingredient to the incredibly successful P90X

When it comes to our daily job, we also become very proficient at it over time. Our brains develop routines and we stick to them because they work. That said, by not challenging the way we do things we invariably plateau and reach a state of pleasant comfort, sometime without even realizing it. However, there is nothing more dangerous in life than comfort because it can quietly kill your creativity, desire to innovate and aspiration for a better tomorrow.

If you have reached that dangerous level of comfort or don’t want to get even near it, let me offer a solution: Mental Confusion.

I do realize that “train your brain as if it was a muscle” metaphor has been overused but in this case it seems very apropos.

2 ways to stimulate Mental Confusion

How do you go about creating “mental confusion”? My suggestions are simple:

do something unrelated to your day job

do whatever makes you (somewhat) uncomfortable

Say, you are a software engineer, programming all day. Why not pick up a book about doing simple sketching. Check out Mark Kistler‘s books. That new skill will help you express your software design to non-engineers.

You are a finance guy, and although no one can rock a spreadsheet like you do, writing has never been your forte. Why not start a blog on a topic you cherish? It can be finance related or not.

You are a math teacher and you nailed your lesson plan… 10 years ago and you can now do it with your eyes closed. How about looking into the ways Khan Academy has successfully harnessed the elements of gamification into their own lessons plans? How? Take this excellent Coursera course on the topic.

You are a magazine editor with a successful personal blog on the side about fashion and have always wanted to customize the look-and-feel of your WordPress blog. Why not take a class on HTML5/PHP/CSS? They are so many good resources (videos, classes, etc…) on those topics that it’s a shame not to take advantage of them.

I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea.

Benefits of Mental Confusion

Outside the obvious advantages of broadening your mental horizon. The new skills will make you more creative overall, more able to be innovative and find better ways of excelling at your trade.

It is no surprise that successful entrepreneurs these days no longer look for talents in a narrow field. Instead they seek well-rounded, dual (T-shaped) or even multidisciplinarity individuals who can contribute at many levels and bring both left and right brains at the table. Companies like IDEO have long preached the gospels of having employees being skillful in more than one field. Practicing “mental confusion” will lead you to become one of those creative innovators.

Universities have also noticed the trend with schools like the Stanford D-school offering a degree in design, combining traditional design teaching with finance/entrepreneurship acumen. Even, bastion of technical/scientific knowledge like Caltech now offers the very popular class PA 16… on Cooking Basics and other typically right-brain topics.

Innovation often emerges at the intersection of 2 disciplines or when 2 experts in their respective domains have a chance encounter. Imagine what you will be able to achieve once various areas of your brain have been sufficiently cultivated .

Ready to get “mentally confused”? Don’t wait, get out of your comfort zone.

Like this:

Procrastination be gone! Use written goals.

Source: http://www.briantracy.com/

You’ve decided to be more creative, and you want to do something about it; maybe read more books on a variety of topic unknown to you in order to broaden your horizons. Or maybe it’s to travel more, learn how to sketch, pick up a new language (human or programming), etc… Whatever your goals are, you are very motivated to achieve them… the first day or maybe the first week and then procrastination sets in.

Brian Tracy claims that only about 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five or ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what they want.

There is a powerful formula for setting and achieving goals that you can use for the rest of your life. It consists of seven simple steps. Any one of these steps can double and triple your productivity if you are not currently using it.

7 steps of the formula

Decide exactly what you want. Either decide for yourself or sit down with your boss and discuss your goals and objectives until you are crystal clear about what is expected of you and in what order of priority.

Write it down. Think on paper. When you write down a goal, you crystallize it and give it tangible form. You create something that you can touch and see. On the other hand, a goal or objective that is not in writing is merely a wish or a fantasy. It has no energy behind it.

Set a deadline on your goal; set sub deadlines if necessary. A goal or decision without a deadline has no urgency. It has no real beginning or end. Without a definite deadline, you will naturally procrastinate and get very little done.

Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. As you think of new activities, add them to your list. Keep building your list until it is complete. A list gives you a visual picture of the larger task or objective. It gives you a track to run on.

Organize the list into a plan. Organize your list by priority and sequence. Take a few minutes to decide what you need to do first and what you can do later. With a written goal and an organized plan of action, you will be far more productive and efficient than people who are carrying their goals around in their minds.

Take action on your plan immediately. Do something. Do anything. An average plan vigorously executed is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done.

Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal. Build this activity into your daily schedule. You may decide to read a specific number of pages on a key subject. You may call on a specific number of prospects or customers. You may engage in a specific period of physical exercise. Whatever it is, you must never miss a day.